1. Field
This method generally relates to a means for the disposal of household pharmaceutical compounds, specifically to consumer means of disposing of medicinal and like compounds.
2. Prior Art
Previously, the field of disposal of medications has been an area of pharmacy that has been overlooked. Pharmaceutical use has sky rocketed in the past several decades. There has been growing concern over the disposal of unused medications. Past means of disposal were found to be inadequate in a world where concerns of pollution and environmental impact are on the forefront. Original means included simply flushing the medications down the drain. The concern with simply flushing pharmaceuticals being that pharmaceuticals would proceed through sewage systems, into treatment plants, and then re-enter the water supply further down the line. In recent years, it has been found that this was a potential detriment to persons consuming water supplied from contaminated sources. This is because current means of water treatment largely cannot remove all of these chemicals from the water supply. Potential therapeutic doses of medications could be found in these waterways.
Recent drug control policy has also created a second conundrum for disposal methods of pharmaceuticals. With the growth of drug abuse of prescription medications, a safe means for disposal of controlled medications with abuse potential in such a way as to limit the potential for diversion is of growing importance. Traditionally, the means to prevent that diversion was to dispose of it via sewage systems. Obviously this is not the preferred means for the reasons listed above.
Traditionally, means for disposing of organic and inorganic pollutants involved large disposal sequestering. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,267 to Aubert, Mar. 26, 1996, has the limitation of being for larger means of disposal and requiring the final product to be sequestered in a well-like subterranean formation. Obviously, disposal of consumer means of any chemical would most likely not be of this severe of pollutant potential, as outlined in that patent. Being said, the method of disposing of these objects into the ground, are a limiting factor. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,968 to Kupiec, Apr. 17, 1979, disposes of the pollutant by mixing it with bentonite and cement. Again the feasibility of the average person to mix cement as a means of the disposal method are not feasible, considering scale. Both methods described in Aubert and Kupiec are fitting solutions to industrial waste, however, they do not solve the problem of addressing domestic medicinal wastes found in the home.
Similar materials are used in U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,879 to Burnett, Jun. 29, 1999, in the form of creating a sandbag. The slurry in this application has the purpose of inhibiting the flow of water and entails the use of multiple materials and a very in depth production process to accomplish this. This patent, again, operates on a large scale and in this case is meant to simply block the flow of river water in a flood situation.